Girls Education after the Collapse of Kabul on 15th of August

During the peace talks in Doha in 2020, the Taliban emphasized the importance of education in several statements ‘because this is the basic right of all Afghans.’ They also wanted to ‘guarantee all human and legal rights of every child, woman, and man.’ In this, the Taliban presented themselves as a progressive force in favor of education for all citizens of Afghanistan, regardless of gender, even though in areas held under Taliban control, up until their recent resurgence, their record for girls’ education was poor and inconsistent.

Very few areas allowed girls past puberty to attend school; some prevented girls from gaining an education where the Taliban held influence over the curriculum and prioritized religious education at the expense of other subjects.

An estimated 3.7 million children are out of school in Afghanistan- 60% of them are girls. After the fall of Kabul and the reemergence of the Taliban and their dark ideology.

Today millions of Afghan girls are deprived of their fundamental rights. Women and girls were banned from schools and universities under Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001, and they are again forbidden from going to school in 2021.

According to the Taliban, “the education system is not Islamic enough, and schools should be segregated by gender, and Taliban will introduce a new dress code.”- Taliban has said.

Taliban have promised the people of Afghanistan; they will not prevent women from being educated or having jobs. But since the fall of Kabul, women cannot go out of their houses, and they are imprisoned in the four walls of their homes.

Taliban’s actions and words are not the same. For more than a month, Afghan girls have been banned from their fundamental right to “education,” and the world is not doing anything about this. Afghan women are paying the price of their fake promises, and they are being tortured mentally and physically.

Afghan women have been fighting for their rights in the last four decades, and they are fighters. They didn’t give up in the previous 40 years, and they will not give up today as well. We are not asking the world to give us western liberties. We are asking for solidarity in this fight against darkness.

 

Writer:A Civil Society Activist from Afghanistan.